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Mayor Miller Expresses Anger & Disappointment Over Transit Delays

The money-saving measures laid out in the provincial budget are bad news for the TTC.

The provincial government is putting $9.3 billion worth of transit initiatives on hold as it grapples with a record $21.3 billion deficit. Nearly half of those projects are in the GTA.

The move infuriated Mayor David Miller who said he was “beyond disappointed” with the provincial budget.

“The Transit City program in Toronto connects neighbourhoods where people have the least,” Miller said, “neighbourhoods where people work two or three part-time jobs just to put food on the table. This provincial budget threatens all of that.”

“I don’t think Torontonians are going to accept this lightly.”

The Metrolinx regional transit agency will likely delay the Eglinton rapid transit line that would stretch from Kennedy station to Pearson Airport, the Finch line from Yonge Street to Humber College, Sheppard Avenue East, the Scarborough RT and Viva expansion in York Region.

“[Premier Dalton McGuinty] is saying to people in Scarborough, who stand and wait for 2 or 3 buses, and have to take 2 or 3 buses to get to work that they’ll wait another decade for the rapid transit that he promised standing beside me and other mayors around this province,” an angry Miller said. “And he’s saying the same thing to people in northeast Etobicoke.”

The mayor also expressed concern for the Pan Am Games in 2015. Miller and McGuinty promised officials new transit lines would be up and running for the event.

The mayor also said the decision to put these transit initiatives on hold will cost the region thousands of good paying construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs at a time when it needs them the most.